The men's épée was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1976 Summer Olympics programme. It was the seventeenth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 22 to 23 July 1976. 64 fencers from 26 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 fencers. The event came down to a three-way barrage among the medalists, with two West German fencers joining Győző Kulcsár of Hungary (who had previously won gold in 1968 and bronze in 1972) in this tie-breaker fencing session. Alexander Pusch won against both opponents in the barrage to take gold, with Hans-Jürgen Hehn defeating Kulcsár for silver. The medals were the first for West Germany in the men's individual épée. Kulcsár's bronze made him the second man to earn three medals in the event (Edoardo Mangiarotti in 1948–1956, also with a gold and two bronzes, was the first).

Background

This was the 17th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Games in 1896 (with only foil and sabre events held) but has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1900.

Five of the six finalists (including the three medalists) from the 1972 Games returned: gold medalist Csaba Fenyvesi of Hungary, silver medalist Jacques Ladègaillerie of France, bronze medalist (and 1968 gold medalist) Győző Kulcsár of Hungary, fourth-place finisher Anton Pongratz of Romania, and fifth-place finisher Rolf Edling of Sweden. The previous four years had seen the rise of Sweden and West Germany in the event; Edling had won the 1973 and 1974 World Championships; Alexander Pusch of West Germany was the reigning (1975) World Champion.

Thailand made its debut in the event. The United States appeared for the 16th time, most among nations, having missed only the 1908 edition of the event.

Competition format

The 1976 tournament returned to a mix of pool and knockout rounds similar to that used in 1968, after the 1972 edition briefly used a pool-only format. The competition included three pool rounds, followed by a double-elimination knockout round, finishing with a final pool round. In each pool round, the fencers competed in a round-robin.

Bouts in the round-robin pools were to 5 touches; bouts in the double-elimination round were to 10 touches. Repechages were not used in the first three rounds, but were used to determine medalists if necessary in the final.

Round 1: 12 pools of 5 or 6 fencers each. The top 3 in each pool (36 total) advanced. Round 2: 6 pools of 6 fencers each. The top 4 in each pool (24 total) advanced. Round 3: 4 pools of 6 fencers each. The top 4 in each pool (16 total) advanced. Elimination rounds: A double-elimination tournament. The 4 fencers who won in both of the first two rounds advanced, as did the 2 fencers who reached the end of the repechage. Final round: 1 pool of 6 fencers.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round Thursday, 22 July 1976 8:3011:0015:0018:00 Round 1Round 2Round 3Elimination rounds Friday, 23 July 1976 18:00 Final

Results

Round 1

Round 1 Pool A

Round 1 Pool B

Round 1 Pool C

Round 1 Pool D

Round 1 Pool E

Round 1 Pool F

Round 1 Pool G

Round 1 Pool H

Round 1 Pool I

Round 1 Pool J

Round 1 Pool K

Round 1 Pool L

Round 2

Round 2 Pool A

Round 2 Pool B

Round 2 Pool C

Round 2 Pool D

Round 2 Pool E

Round 2 Pool F

Round 3

Round 3 Pool A

Round 3 Pool B

Round 3 Pool C

Round 3 Pool D

Double elimination rounds

Winners brackets

Winners group 1

Winners group 2

Winners group 3

Winners group 4

Losers brackets

Losers group 1

Losers group 2

Final round

The final pool was closely fought, with all six fencers at either 3–2 or 2–3. The three men who finished with three wins advanced to a barrage to determine the medals, while the three men who had only two wins in the pool were ranked by pool results. In the barrage, Pusch defeated both Kulcsár and Hehn to win the gold medal, with Hehn prevailing over Kulcsár to take silver.

Barrage

Final classification

Rank Fencer Nation 1 Alexander Pusch 2 Hans-Jürgen Hehn 3 Győző Kulcsár 4 István Osztrics 5 Jerzy Janikowski 6 Rolf Edling 7 Csaba Fenyvesi Göran Flodström 9 Hans Jacobson John Pezza Reinhold Behr Philippe Boisse 13 Nicolae Iorgu Christian Kauter Ralph Johnson Jaroslav Jurka 17 Nils Koppang 18 Boris Lukomsky 19 Paul Szabo 20 Aleksandr Bykov 21 Karl-Heinz Müller 22 François Suchanecki 23 Nicola Granieri 24 Jeppe Normann 25 Daniel Giger 26 Aleksandr Abushakhmetov 27 Greg Benko 28 Teddy Bourne 29 Zbigniew Matwiejew 30 Ole Mørch 31 Thierry Soumagne 32 Sarkis Assatourian 33 Anton Pongratz 34 Peter Zobl-Wessely Omar Vergara 36 Herbert Lindner 37 Philippe Riboud 38 Brooke Makler 39 Arthur Ribeiro 40 Tim Belson 41 Marceli Wiech 42 Scotty Bozek 43 Robert Schiel 44 George Masin Sneh Chousurin 46 Taweewat Hurapan 47 Iraj Dastgerdi 48 Roger Menghi 49 Daniel Feraud 50 Jacques Ladègaillerie 51 George Varaljay 52 Marcello Bertinetti 53 Alain Dansereau 54 Gilberto Peña 55 Geza Tatrallyay 56 Sutipong Santitevagul 57 Juan Inostroza 58 Veikko Salminen Esfandihar Zarnegar 60 Rubén Hernández 61 Denis Cunningham 62 Chan Matthew 63 Kam Roger 64 Juan Daniel Pirán

References